Page 170 of The Edge of Darkness

Beneath him, Nivelle was trying to figure out what to do as the Dreki grew more and more restless.

“Can—uh . . . can you calm him down for a minute?” Roirdan gritted out while he tried to hold himself steady against the moving giant.

Nivelle held her hands up, trying to signal the Dreki. “Eftuush, eftuush,” she chanted as she watched Hellfire’s paws, careful not to get caught underfoot as he began to rear up. She snapped her head around, finding the five of us standing idly by, and the look she gave us promised retribution for watching and doing nothing to help.

Vanir chuckled under his breath. “This is far better than the flight itself.”

Niall laughed as well. “He’s going to kill us later.”

“No. She will, though,” Remic said, inclining his head to the witch, who was now grunting and waving her hands at the Dreki, completely out of other ideas.

“Fuck! Say some spell or something!” Roirdan yelled. “I can’t get my belt unhooked from this damn thing!”

“Unless you want him dead or paralyzed, there’s not a spell for making something freeze in place.”

Roirdan shot her a look over his shoulder. “What, you can’t just make one up?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Let me just try.” She planted her hands on her hips and fell quiet for a long moment.

“Anything?”

“No! Because it doesn’t work that way!”

Roirdan banged into the Dreki’s side again, then glared down at Nivelle. He hoisted himself up with one arm, using his feet to try and thrust his body away from the Dreki’s and unhook the entangled hardware. When his body slammed back into the beast’s, he pounded his fist against its scaly skin in frustration.

“Nivelle, I need you to climb up here and unhook my belt!”

She halted. “You want me to do what?!”

“Grab the reins, use them to climb up his front leg, then swing over to me and unhook my belt!”

“Are you insane?!”

“Yeah, I think that’s a bit obvious!”

She scoffed and turned back toward us. “Can one of you brutes be of some help here?”

Every male either held up their hands or stayed silent.

I had half a thought to just use my power to rip the saddle from the Dreki and free Roirdan from his predicament, but watching Nivelle come to his rescue was much more appealing.

To try and ease the tension, I called out, “Hellfire likes you, so it’s probably best if you do it.” I winced, then tried to give her an encouraging smile, but it ricocheted off her glare.

Gods, she really was going to tear us all apart later.

“C’mon!” Roirdan hollered, nervously eyeing Hellfire’s tail as the creature’s growing agitation started to become a real concern.

Nivelle balled her hands into fists, then jumped and caught a hold of the leather strap that dangled a few feet above her. She pressed her boots into Hellfire’s front leg and pulled herself up. “Eftuush,” she repeated between breaths, trying her best to calm the Dreki as she climbed.

Hellfire whipped his neck around, trying to get eyes on what was happening. He let out a rasping hiss as Nivelle slung herself around the curve of his ribcage and caught onto Roirdan’s outstretched arm.

She held herself steady by wrapping her legs around Roirdan’s thigh, using her free hand to reach for the clasp of his belt. “Lean back,” she commanded. He angled his hips just enough to allow her small hand to slip in between him and the Dreki. She bit her lip, concentrating, and Roirdan cleared his throat a little too loudly as she worked at the clasp.

Beside me, Remic and Niall were about to come undone with laughter. Both of their shoulders shook as they pushed breaths out their noses and utterly failed at smothering their grins.

“Lift up,” Nivelle instructed.

Using both hands, Roirdan gripped the saddle and stirrup, and pulled up, while Nivelle unfastened his belt and pushed the saddle strap’s prong free from where it had punctured a new hole through the leather.